Kathleen Parker: President Obama ‘took advantage’ of Newtown shooting

The Obama administration has used the guns issue to take advantage of a crisis, Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist with the Washington Post said Monday on Morning Joe.

“We had this horrible incident and so now it’s an opportunity. Trust me on this. This is taking advantage of a moment to get gun legislation through,” Parker said, adding that the administration wants to put through gun reform, just as they pushed for healthcare legislation.

Despite mass shootings last year in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., Congress has not passed gun reform. U.S. senators in April failed to pass a compromise on background checks with a 54-46 vote.

“They know that this is a process, and they’re pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, even knowing possibly that it’s not going through,” she said.

But the disconnect between the White House’s priorities and those of the people is the most serious threat to the current liberal ascendance, Ross Douthat, New York Times columnist, said Saturday in anop-ed.

“President Obama has a good chance to be remembered as ‘the liberal Reagan,’ but the Reagan recovery was far better for most Americans than this one has been,” he wrote.

The disconnect, however, was that gun legislation didn’t pertain to the circumstances at Sandy Hook, Parker said.

“It would have been much better had they said: ‘Look, we know that background checks would not have made a difference in this case, but we still think it’s an important step to take, and here’s why,” she said.